Dark Evolution
by Gypsy Druid
Summary: What happened that was so bad, the Powers and the Partners worked together to correct? What was the result of their solution?
1. Prologue, Part 1

**Dark Evolution**

**Disclaimer:** Joss Whedon own Buffy. Marvel (and whoever owns Marvel, or however that works) own X-Men. I own nothing. I own no one. I'm not even making money on the plot. So, to put it plainly, suing me would be pointless.

**Pairing(s):** Buffy (by a new name)/Whomever she pleases

**Summary:** What happened that was so bad, the Powers and the Partners worked together to correct? What was the result of their solution?

Prologue

A small, pale hand burst out of the ground, instinctively flailing for a hold before it was joined by the other and both were pressed firmly onto the ground to push against. A moment later, a dirt-encrusted blonde head erupted from the soil, falling back with a hard gasp, drawing in great gulps of air into newly refunctioning lungs.

Pulling herself completely out of the soil, the young woman curled into a fetal ball, shivering and uncomprehending and nearly going insane from the unrelenting cacophony pressing in on her.

Gradually, her healing managed to re-establish the necessary connections that allowed her brain to interpret the onslaught of sensory input. Smells and sounds began to clarify, and she tentatively opened her eyes. Her vision slowly cleared and focused and she found herself looking at words etched onto a stone slab.

_Buffy Summers  
1981-2001_

_Beloved Sister  
Devoted Friend_

_She Saved The World  
A Lot_

She stared at it uncomprehendingly for several long moments before whispering a single word in such total desolation that even most demons would have been affected, or pleased. _"No! No, no, no, no..."_

Even as she was trying to deny what her eyes were seeing, and her mind retreated from the horror she was now faced with, her other senses began to identify and catalog the scents and sounds in the air.

Screams of pain and terror...the roar of motorcycles...Willow and Xander and a few of the others...demons and leather...magic...fresh soil...

The scrambling in her mind came to a screeching halt as she processed those things. _Scoobies_ and _magic_.

Connection made.

_"Willow!"_ Only Willow and Tara were capable of the power that she sensed in the lingering magic, but she knew Tara well enough to know that the hereditary witch would have never considered such a course of action on her own. The very idea of it would go against the Wiccan's beliefs.

A sudden wave of black rage rose up and engulfed her. If anyone could see her, they would have been running immediately after, human and demon alike, as her eyes turned a deep copper orange and the canines of her clenched teeth at the top and bottom lengthened slightly and sharpened to pointed tips. Her fingers grew longer and hardened into claws that dug grooves into the Earth. There was a rippling movement under her skin that had nothing to do with her muscles, then she managed to climb to her feet, throw her head back, and scream her fury to the darkened sky above.

Her movements were jerky at first as atrophied muscles continued to regenerate. She ignored the agonizing pain, let it blend and fade into the rest, as she forced herself forward. If the witch had done this, then she could send her back. She would send her back. She would do it or the enraged Slayer would gut her and strangle her with her own entrails.

~~~ BtVS ~~ X-Men ~~~

Upper Realm of the Powers That Be

"How could this have happened?" A voice sounded in the misty expanse. "Once a Champion passed into the Heavenly Dimensions beyond The Gates, there is no way to return."

"Apparently, The Gates are not as impenetrable as assumed." Another voice answered. "The witch discovered a loophole in the Laws, a figurative 'crack' in The Gates that she used to pull the Champion back out."

"Something must be done." Yet another voice declared. "Already the Balance becomes unstable. If she remains, eventually the instability will release our ancient enemy. That cannot be allowed to happen."

"Agreed." The First Voice intoned. "Also, the soul of the Champion has been shredded from being torn so viciously from her peace. She will easily be corrupted by the evils of this dimension if she remains. Already the black magic used in the spell has fortified the demon essence used to create the Slayer entity. In hindsight, it may have been a mistake to use one of the Gar'Nahor-Koros to create this Champion."

"Only they had the ability to survive in essence form." Voice #3 reminded. "That was required for the entity to be passed on. Simple exposure to dark magic would not have done this. The human soul filtered what the essence absorbed, but this spell has very nearly ripped the Champion's soul apart, and the magic is getting absorbed fully and unfiltered. We have no idea what will come of this."

"With the corruption, she will be barred from the Heavenly Realms." Voice #2 said sadly.

"If the dark energies of that particular area continue to strengthen the essence, it will fill the tears in the soul." Voice #3 clarified. "If that happens, she will be as much Gar'Nahor-Koros as she is human. Should that occur, there is a good possibility that death will be denied to her unless under the most extreme of circumstances."

"This is not right." Voice #1 declared. "She has done all that we have required of her, and more, sacrificed more than any other Slayer before her so far. Is there nothing that can be done?"

~~~ BtVS ~~ X-Men ~~~

Her head was down and her hair covered her face as the Slayer forced her body forward with unwavering determination. Her Host had retreated from the horror of what had been done to them. This had not been the first time the Host had retreated in such a manner, but this was the first time that she, the Slayer, had been strong enough to take over the body independent of the Host.

"Well, boys, lookee what we got here."

The Slayer snarled at the demons suddenly surrounding her. She had been ignoring the screaming of her senses in her single-minded tracking of the Witch, not caring about these others as they toyed with the humans of this Hell. She didn't even give them an opportunity to attack first as the pain in her limbs faded as her body readied for battle. As they jeered and growled and revved their motorcycles, she launched at the one that had spoken first, instinctively recognizing him as the leader.

The demon biker gang had been riding high on their success at running roughshod over the Hellmouth, that they didn't expect any resistance, even though this female felt slightly...off to their senses, and she had torn through three of them, literally, before they managed to shake off their shock and begin fighting back. Finally, the others jumped off of their motorcycles and rushed her all at once, swinging chains and lashing out with claws. She killed two more before her own blood was shed due to claw marks across her back.

In retaliation, she did something that had the others scrambling to run in any other direction. Spinning around in a blurring motion, she grabbed the demon that had shredded her around the throat. She dug in her claws and her head snapped back as both she and the demon that she was holding began to scream. A moment later, only she was screaming, as the demon shriveled in her grasp. The others froze in horror as a reddish-black mist swirled from where the claws were dug in, up her arm, shoulder and into her open mouth. They began backing away when her flesh rippled as if something was trying to get out.

They finally broke and ran when copper eyes refocused on them again and her lip curled in a feral sneer as she dropped the husk of the body and flexed her fingers.

~~~ BtVS ~~ X-Men ~~~

"That should not be possible!" Voice #1 exclaimed. "We did not give the Slayer entity that ability when we created it."

"I believe that we have already established that none of this should be possible." Voice #3 responded. "This, however, is a distressing turn of events. It seems that, as we feared, the dark magic used to perform this ritual has indeed refortified the Gar'Nahor-Koros essence used in the Creation. This Champion may very well be truly lost to us. Already she begins to change."

"We have no idea what she is becoming," Voice #2 interjected, "but now the necessity to remove her has increased tenfold. We do not know what affect the Gar'Nahor-Koros essence will have on Slayer or the mind and soul of the Champion, or vice versa. Already the Balance is precarious by her very presence. If the change is drastic, and she walks the path of all Gar'Nahor-Koros, the Balance may be irrevocably tipped."

"What can we do?" Voice #1 asked. "This Champion, and the Slayer entity within her, is no longer bound to us."

~~~ BtVS ~~ X-Men ~~~

Absorbing the demon's essence impacted the Slayer like nothing else ever had. The energy flared through her body like a raging fire, speeding up her healing and reenergizing her completely. It strengthened the Slayer, but it also buried the Host deeper into their shared psyche.

The further into town she tracked her prey, the more she was attacked. She slaughtered without restraint, tearing through the demons with a savagery that terrified them almost as much as they had been terrifying the other humans, in those short moments before they died. She absorbed the essence of several more demons as she made her way through the trashed streets, until she found herself on a familiar road.

**"Home."** She said, looking around and inhaling the scents of the area. The witches and the others had been this way not too long ago.

~~~ BtVS ~~ X-Men ~~~

Out in the misty expanse of their realm, a gong sounded. It was a request to meet from their counterparts. The Powers moved to the meeting place and took corporeal form, humanoid bodies with the heads of the Eagle, the Lion and the Bear.

A few moments later, their counterparts arrived in the forms of the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart.

"What has occurred?" The Wolf demanded without preamble. "What is this abomination that has appeared overtop the Hellmouth?"

"Yes!" The Ram spoke up. "It has the essence of one of our most powerful warriors, but also the presence of one of your 'Champions'. We cannot take a hold of it as is our right!"

"You have named it aptly." The Lion-headed PTB said. "It is an anomaly. A Slayer has been torn from a Heavenly Realm behind The Gates."

The Partners were as horrified as the Powers had been. The Gates were supposed to be impenetrable. The Realms that they guarded were the Heavens and Hells, for the Champions of either side, that fell in the Eternal Battle, their respective paradises. One of the few rules that the Partners did not even consider breaking, was attempting to breach those Gates.

"How?" The Wolf asked.

"A loophole." The Lion answered. "Because the Champion was killed by the supernatural energies of the portal, a ritual was used to bring her back. It ripped her brutally and unexpectedly from her peace."

"The soul of our Champion has shredded from the tearing, the dark magic used has been absorbed unfiltered by the Slayer entity, and it has fortified the essence used to create it." The Eagle said grimly. "It has somehow regained the ability to absorb the essences of others to strengthen itself. With every absorption, it grows in strength, and it is filling in the fissures in her soul."

"This is unacceptable!" The Hart declared scathingly. "We have no way of knowing what such a being is capable of, or what it will want."

"We are already making preparations to move her to a dimension whose Laws will accept a supernatural being, but where her presence will not have any adverse affect." The Bear told them. "However, we must find a way to neutralize the Slayer so that she can be moved. At the moment, it is the Slayer entity that is in control, not the human Host, and it is growing stronger with every essence that it consumes."

"We will assist." The Wolf said after conferring with the others. "In this neutral place, our combined power will be more than enough to subdue the entity, and force the Host to reemerge and retake control."


	2. Prologue, Part 2

Prologue, Part 2

The battered and disillusioned Scoobies stumbled into the house with visible relief. Between the weakened, barely conscious condition Willow had been left in, after the interrupted and failed resurrection spell, and trying to avoid the hordes of demons that had suddenly descended on Sunnydale, it had been hard getting back to Revello Drive. The Buffybot was destroyed, and now they had no idea what to do next.

"What happened?" Dawn gasped when she saw them. "What's going on out there? It sounds like a warzone!"

"Somehow the demons found out about the Buffybot," Xander answered tiredly. "There's a biker gang raiding downtown Sunnydale. We've been mostly ducking them since Will's been so weakened from the spell."

"What spell?" Dawn asked suspiciously. She'd known that the older Scoobies had been hiding something from her, but she'd been so wrapped up in her grief over the back-to-back losses of her mother and her sister, that she hadn't managed to dredge up the interest to find out what it was.

"The resurrection spell to bring Buffy back." Xander answered absentmindedly. He wasn't exactly thinking clearly after the events of the entire night, and his eyes were closed, so he missed the frantically shaking heads of the others. A moment later, his eyes popped open and he visibly winced as he realized what he'd just said. They'd been keeping their plans from both Dawn and Giles, not wanting to get the hopes up for the former, and knowing that the latter would disapprove and try to stop them. It had taken all of Willow's persuasive skills just to get Tara to agree to perform the ritual that went against everything that she had been taught to believe in.

"WHAT?" Dawn screeched. "What resurrection spell?"

They stumbled over themselves trying to explain how, because Buffy died by supernatural causes, meaning the overload of energies from the opening portal, they could bring Buffy back without the brain-eating consequences.

"Why?" Dawn demanded. "You know that she wouldn't have wanted that! She was tired of fighting every night!"

"But Dawnie," Willow pushed herself up from where her head had been resting in her girlfriend's lap. "Buffy jumped through a portal to a Hell dimension! She's either still fighting for her life, or she's being tortured or, or something worse..."

Before she could continue, they all jumped as the front door practically exploded. Standing in the doorway was the one person that they had thought they'd lost forever.

"Buffy!" Everyone exclaimed.

No one moved, however, because even though they could easily recognize her, there were also a few little changes that were absolutely impossible to overlook. The copper colored eyes bright with rage that immediately zeroed in on the red-headed witch, the pointed teeth bared in a feral snarl and last, but not least, the flexing claws that looked wicked enough to rip them in half without much effort. She was covered in various colored demon blood and ichor, and even some that looked suspiciously like human blood, her clothes were torn and shredded, but she looked like she had sustained few injuries herself.

**"Return us!"** The Slayer snarled.

"Buffy?" Dawn took a cautious step forward. The Slayer turned to look at the one that spoke her Host's name. There was a moment of confusion. Her scent called her 'offspring', but her host's memories said 'sibling'.

Dawn stopped when Tara gasped. She had used her inner sight to look at the strange creature's aura, the feeling of familiarity throwing off her instinctive fear. She could see the royal blue of the Buffy and the burnished gold of the Slayer, but there was also an inky blackness that seemed to be expanding within the gold. Dawn looked at her questioningly, for some reason unafraid of this demon with her sister's face.

"It's the Slayer in Buffy. Buffy is buried deep inside, and the Slayer has come to the forefront. Something has happened. Something is still happening. The Slayer's aura is so strong, and Buffy's is so fractured that it is nearly shattered. The Slayer has somehow filled in and fused the gaps, and there is a darkness that is spreading in it."

The Slayer shook her away her confusion and refocused on her primary goal. These people, and their words, were unimportant to what she needed. Her Host had considered them friends and family, but the Slayer only saw that they had irreparably hurt them both. The only one not on the current shitlist, was the sibling/offspring. Before anyone could move, she was across the room and holding Willow against the wall, completely off of her feet. Willow squeaked in fear.

**"RETURN US!"** The Slayer screamed.

The Scoobies gasped in horror as her skin began to ripple and bulge as she became visibly more enraged, and hints of crimson began to bleed into the copper. She lashed out backwards with her foot as Xander came rushing to his best friend's rescue, knocking him half-unconscious. The others were screaming, but she ignored them to glare into Willow's wide, terrified eyes and growl out her demand once more. Then, she froze as another intruder pinged on her senses, and a hand settled on her rigid arm.

"She can't, kid." Whistler said sadly. "She can't send you back."

The Slayer shook her head as her Host unexpectedly rose within her. She tried to force her back down, but this Host had always had an unusual strength of will when it came to her influence.

"Please, Whistler," Buffy looked over at the balance demon, the pain in voice and eyes was heartbreaking, "please send us back. It hurts us to be here, and something is happening to us the longer we stay."

"We know." He told her gently. "Without the filter of your soul, the Slayer entity absorbed the black magic of the spell, and it kind of 'woke up' the demon essence used to create it. It's been taking advantage of your state of shock to regain strength and is trying to take over you both. This *can not* happen, Buffy," He stressed, actually using her name for the first time since they're original meeting. "There is no tether on this demon. The Powers and the Partners are actually willing to put aside their differences and team up to help you overcome this."

"Then tell them to send us back." She pleaded.

"It's too late for that." He said sadly. "Usually, when the Host dies, the Slayer entity moves on to a new Host. We don't know how or why a part of the entity stayed with you after you were revived that first time, even though a new Slayer was called. We didn't know how it would play out when you finally died again. The entity went with you, experienced the same thing you did, and that's why it has been equally affected by your return. The thing is, kid, although the Slayer entity has no physical form, it can not be destroyed, and now that it has become an actual part of your soul, neither can you."

Although barely functioning coherently through the horror and pain still swamping her, it only took Buffy a moment to understand what he was telling her.

She could no longer die. She'd never be able to go back to that place of peace that she had been torn from. It was too much. She finally allowed herself to be submerged once again, no longer caring what the Slayer did, to anyone.

The Slayer screamed in rage, understanding through the Host what was now forever denied to them. It had _never_ experienced peace like in that place. She had not felt the relentless need to Hunt and Destroy, or the perpetual rage that had been a part of her for as long as she had awareness. She wanted it back, but she and her Host was denied somehow.

With a howl of rage, she was prepared to slaughter everything in the room, starting with the witch dangling from her grasp, when her back bowed and Willow cried out as a sword tip appeared from her abdomen. A quick glance over the Slayer's shoulder showed a determined looking Xander just behind her, but not for long. A spinning backfist sent the young man shooting across the room and out of the front window like he'd been shot from a cannon. Anya screamed and ran out to check on him. He was unconscious, and bleeding from the ear, mouth and obviously broken nose. It looked like the side of his face had been caved in, but a quick check revealed that he was still alive. Barely.

Before Willow could react to what had just happened to her childhood friend, she let out a strangled cry as the hand around her throat shifted and claws began to dig in. She felt something deep inside being dragged out.

Whistler reacted quickly when he saw what the Slayer was about to do. They had watched as every time the Slayer was seriously wounded, she used the essence of another to heal herself. He knew that no matter how Buffy felt right now, she'd never forgive herself if the Slayer drew out the supernatural and living energy from her best friend. After all, despite the dangerous stupidity of what the witch had done, even he knew that she had only been trying to help. He hit the Slayer with an energy ball powerful enough to kill a First Circle Demon. It sent her flying into the side wall with enough force to shove her halfway through the wall. She was growling like a feral animal when she managed to push herself out of it. She swayed for a moment, then took a step, but couldn't react fast enough to avoid the second energy ball. Slamming into the wall again, she crumpled over like a stringless puppet before vanishing right before their eyes.

Whistler dropped into a lotus position on the floor next to a gasping Willow. He was exhausted. As a balance demon, he really didn't have much in the way of powers, but his bosses had juiced him up in case he was forced into a confrontation with the nearly berserk Slayer as they watched her tear through the demons unwise enough to get in her way.

"You're that balance demon that Buffy told us about." Willow said hoarsely. Whistler nodded. "What happened to her? Was it that bad where she was? How long was she there? Will she get over the Stockholm Syndrome? What did they do to make her change like that?"

He looked at her in disbelief. His usual genial disposition was being severely tested at the moment. Although he fully acknowledged that he knew she had been trying to help the Slayer with the little stunt that she pulled, seeing the kid suffering like she was, just made him so angry at the whole lot of them.

"Oh, no, you foolish little rank amateur, think you know it all, half-assed witch," he snapped before he could stop himself, "this, all of this, with the possible exception of demon wannabe bikers out there, is YOUR fault."

Before he could go further, he tilted his head as he received a message from the Powers and an influx of new energy. Sighing, he reached out and touched Willow's bruised throat. She jerked, feeling like a live wire had come in contact with her skin, then the others gasped as her the puncture wounds and bruises vanished on her throat healed. Without a word, Whistler pushed himself to his feet and walked outside to heal Xander as well, then lifted him and carried him back inside.

"Everyone get comfortable, so I can explain just how badly you've screwed the pooch."


	3. Chapter 1

Chapter One

The six omniscient 'keepers' of the Balance stared at the being in the center of the 'room'. Even now, forced into a recuperative sleep from the damage brought on by Whistler's attack, her skin moved and rippled as the demon essence tried to maintain its meager foothold. Now that they had her here, they could clearly see something that they shouldn't be seeing.

"That bloodline was removed from the Slayer Line after the Incident!" The Wolf growled. "It was agreed upon by us all. How could this have happened?"

"Think you that we know?" The Eagle exclaimed. "Remember, it was us that put forth the decision. We are as surprised and dismayed by this unexpected complication as you seem to be."

Deep within Buffy's soul was a still untapped core of darkness recognizable to both sides even after all these generations.

"Apparently, we should have eliminated all of the remaining descendants as was our suggestion." The Hart sneered. "Your softness may well have doomed us all."

"Look closer." The Bear unexpectedly spoke up. "Her soul does not bear the mark of a Potential."

All eyes swung around again. The Bear spoke true. Buffy Summers had never been a Potential.

"How?" The Ram and the Lion said simultaneously.

The six looked at each other for an endless moment, then the Lion and the Wolf waved their hands in the same direction. In the mist, a line began to form, marked with the occasional dot and an image, beginning with the unforgettable features of sun-tanned skin and smiling hazel eyes. If Buffy had been conscious to see it, she would have been amazed, for it was an image of Sineya, before the Shadowmen had made her the First Slayer. What would have amazed her the most, however, was the uncanny resemblance between them.

"How could we have missed this?" The Eagle lamented. "It is no wonder that she has conformed to no one's standards, even our own."

"This also explains why the entity abandoned the established Line to join with her." The Bear continued.

"What are you babbling about?" The Wolf demanded in near shout.

"This Champion, Buffy Summers is the reincarnation of the offspring of Sineya, the First of the Chosen." The Lion said solemnly. "The Unclaimable One."

~~~ BtVS ~~ X-Men ~~~

Tara helped her girlfriend as Whistler laid Xander on the couch, looking up only for a moment when the young man groaned as he began to regain consciousness. Willow moved woodenly, her eyes never leaving the spot where Buffy had disappeared, the balance demon's accusation still resounding in her ears.

"Are y-you o-okay, baby?" She asked gently.

"He said that whatever is happening to Buffy is my fault." The redhead whispered in horror.

"Let's l-let him e-explain first." Tara suggested wisely. "Maybe it's not as b-bad as it s-sounded." She hugged her lover close in comfort. "Even if it is, w-we know that you d-didn't do it on p-purpose."

Willow shuddered and buried her face in Tara's neck for a moment, gathering her inner strength from the other witch's unwavering love and support, before she took a deep breath and pulled away. Together, they looked to the PTB's messenger.

"Can..." Willow took another deep breath. "Can you tell us what happened to Buffy? You said something about the Slayer absorbing the magic."

"Not just any magic," Whistler said reprovingly, "but some of the darkest magic that exists in this dimension." Everyone looked at Willow in shock. They hadn't known the specifics of the spell. She had been abnormally closed-mouthed about it when asked, even with Tara. "Whatever possessed you to do something so foolish?"

Willow looked down at her hands clenched in her lap, tears dripping onto whitened knuckles. "It-it was t-t-the only one I could f-find." She sobbed. "I couldn't let her s-suffer for sacrificing her life to save us all. I h-h-had to save her."

Whistler sighed deeply as he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "And that's the only reason that the Powers aren't demanding retribution, both for the innocent life that you took, and for ripping their Champion from a reward that she very much deserved. You see Red, she didn't go to a hell dimension as you assumed_._ The Powers understand that there would have been no way for you to find her behind The Gates, but if they'd had any inkling of what you were attempting to do, you would have been informed that her soul had been sent to her final peace."

Willow gave a horrified, anguished whimper as she crumpled in on herself, sobbing harshly. Tara wrapped her arms tightly around her from one side, and Dawn quickly sat down on the other.

Whistler waited with uncharacteristic patience as they comforted her. Once her sobbing lessened, he continued. "Unfortunately, there will still be consequences, because magic like that requires it, but like I said, because the Powers are well aware that you truly thought of nothing but saving the Slayer, they have negated as much of it as they could."

"What about Buffy?" Dawn asked.

"She can't stay here." Whistler said, a little sadly. He really liked the kid, despite her constant threats every time she saw him, or heard his name mentioned, or just thought of him in general. If nothing else, she hadn't been boring. "You saw for yourself what the dark magic and the absorbed essences and the Hellmouth was doing to her. If she stays, she'll continue to soak it all in like a sponge, and she'll end up becoming worse than anything you've ever fought."

"That's impossible." Xander denied vehemently. "Buffy would never allow that to happen."

"Did I say she would do it consciously?" Whistler shot him a dark look, and the boy quieted. "You need to stay quiet, boy. Your little white knight routine, while I'm sure probably looked good for the ladies, nearly got the witch worse than killed."

"What about the Hellmouth?" He asked, a lot less belligerently this time. "We're trying, but we can't hold it alone."

"The Watcher is already working to get the Dark Slayer released to take over duties that are rightfully hers anyway."

"Faith?" Xander nearly jumped off the couch, before falling back with a moan. He stubbornly continued his objection. "You're letting that psycho-murderer back on the Hellmouth after she switched sides? Are you on crack?"

"Xander, shut up." Anya finally spoke up. She had been uncharacteristically silent nearly the entire night. "He's right. Now that the demons know about the Buffybot, and now that the stupid thing's been destroyed, we need a Slayer. Faith is a Slayer. As long as she sticks to slaying the demons instead of helping them, and you stay out of her damn bed, I don't care if she personally tortured and massacred half of Sunnydale. I'm not going to die just because you all have past issues. You have a past issue with me as well, remember?"

She kept him silent with a glare when he opened his mouth to respond. "Besides, how smart is it to piss off the mouthpiece of the Powers?"

Xander paled as he remembered just who he'd been yelling at. With an audible gulp, he resettled on the couch and kept his head down.

"It's time for you to step up, Anyanka." Whistler turned to the former vengeance demon. "The knowledge that you possess would be invaluable to this group. It would have been to the Slayer, but they are human and they are young and, despite your constant reminders of who you once were, they still see you as merely another Scooby. It has never occurred to them to see you as a valuable resource, with your firsthand knowledge of the demon world. Just because it does not occur to them to ask you, does not mean that you should withhold what you know."

"They see me as a Scooby?" Anya asked in surprise, feeling absurdly pleased by that. She had always felt like something of an outsider around the tightly knit group. She often wondered if Tara felt the same.

"I still want to know about Buffy!" Dawn interrupted with as much forcefulness as a young teenager could. "Tell me what happened to my sister and what you did with her."

Whistler sighed once again. "Ripping her through the sealed Gates damaged the kid in ways you could never possibly imagine. It quite literally tore her soul to shreds."

Willow whimpered again. Tara rubbed soothing circles on her back, even as she struggled with the knowledge that her lover had used the worst kind of magic, for any reason, no matter how justified. The balance demon was right. There would be unavoidable consequences for using that magic, and Willow was going to bear the brunt of it. She was going to have to keep a close eye on her lover in the near future.

"The demon whose essence was used to create the Slayer entity was very powerful." Whistler continued. "It kept itself strong by absorbing the essence of those it defeated, both to replenish itself, and because that was the only true way to destroy its enemies. The Slayer entity was not given that ability when it was created, but like I previously mentioned, the unfiltered surge of black magic 'woke up' the demon essence. It had been taking the essences of those that the Slayer took out on her way here, both demon _and_ human, in an attempt to keep the body strong and to regain its own strength to 'take over' the Slayer entity, and eventually would have managed to take over the kid as well, corrupting her completely. She would have literally been worse than any demon that you have ever faced."

The horror in the room was almost palpable.


	4. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"What can we do now?" The Hart asked, worry clear in his voice.

They had tried to put the essence into a dormant state, but found that it had already become too powerful for that, even though it had not managed yet to completely corrupt the entity that was the Slayer. The Slayer entity was also fighting them, aware enough to consider what they were trying to do as an attack. Only the human soul, the part that was solely Buffy, remained unawakened and unaware.

However, in the midst of the Powers and the Partners attempts to subdue both their tainted creation and the cause of that taint, they had managed to tap into that dark part of Buffy's soul, and it was now pulsing with every beat of her heart. Worse, the demon essence was being drawn to it much like it had been in the beginning so long ago. They had no doubt that when she awoke, they would be 'knee deep' in yet another situation that should not be possible.

(mini-backstory)

The creation of the Slayer entity had been a success, but when they had sent the 'idea' of the Slayer to the mages that would in the future be referred to as the Shadowmen, they had not known enough about demon essences to realize that the one that they had captured was not as 'unaware' as they assumed. It had merely been in a state of 'hibernation' to replenish its strength. The Powers had been watching that particular demon for some time. Daxas was one of the few demons that even that Partners were wary of. He cared nothing for the 'politics' of the Balance, killing with complete impartiality to satisfy his bloodlust, not giving quarter whether human or demon or mixed breed. It's willingness to destroy its own kind, was the reason the Powers chose to use this particular demon. They just had to wait for an opportune time to 'take' the demon from it's masters without alerting their counterparts.

Even then, the Powers had not been without their 'Champions'. They had sent the strongest that they had, and made sure that their counterparts were sufficiently distracted during the titanic battle. They had captured Daxas' essence just as his body was destroyed, before their counterparts were even aware that one of their number had fallen.

They had taken the essence and created the entity that would become known as the Slayer. They had planted the seeds for the idea into the shamans to find a host for their creation. However, they had expected the men to find a 'willing' host among the humans that were being beaten down and enslaved by the demons that ravaged the lands. There had been more than enough with the needed desire in their hearts to be rid of the demons to suit their purposes, any number of men that were already doing what they could to fight off the demon hordes that constantly tore their lives apart. They had not expected the men to choose a child, and a girl child at that.

The child had been unwilling, and that had been the shamans' first mistake. She had also been feral and wild, having escaped the slaughter of her village by a horde only months ago, she had surviving on her own and killing any demon that she had come across, as well as any human that threatened her. Despite the attempts to beat her into submission, the girl had fought them every single step of the way. She had made numerous attempts to escape, often chewing through the ropes that they had kept her bound in. They had been forced to beat and starve her until she was too weak to make more than a token struggle, and even then, resorted to using chains to pin her down for the ritual itself. By that time, rage and hatred had grown and festered in the young girl's heart for the men to match what she'd already held for the demons, and it had been that dark festering in her soul which had roused Daxas from the rejuvenating sleep cycle that he had been in.

What the Powers did not know, what even the Partners did not know, was that the truly powerful demons were cognizant even in essence form. They could perceive the world around them, see, hear, plan and even influence. Daxas became aware of the potential of the human that he was being forced into, and immediately decided that this body would be just as good as any, with a few alterations. He had not yet realized that he was, for all intents and purposes, trapped in the prison of the entity that the Powers had bound him to. He could not access even the limited power that he possessed while in that form.

His rage fueled and merged with the girl's, and in the process, his essence blended into her soul.

Before the shamans' eyes, the girl changed. Her skin blackened and her eyes glowed an eerie reddish copper. Their shock and fear was broken by the screeching of the chains that she was pulling on. Eyes widened as the chain links began to pull apart. As one wrist came free, they demonstrated their wisdom admirably by running for their lives before she managed to fully get loose.

Every demon for leagues felt the brunt of their combined wrath, no matter whether they were good, evil or just merely trying to survive. The Powers watched, but did not interfere, since it seemed that even with the bonding that they had not foreseen, the new entity and the demon essence were still doing what they wanted. They just made sure that their own Champions stayed clear of this new player.

Sineya largely ignored humans unless they attacked her first, however they struck often. Her behavior and appearance was anomalous. She remained independent and had features reminiscent of the demons. This otherness inspired constant aggression and assaults. So, other than saving their useless lives and accepting their sometimes surprising generosity, she kept herself separated from them. Until she grew older and certain urges became too great to ignore. Then she took what she needed, never lacking in willing bedmates, both male and female. Some Daxas wanted, and even some that she wanted for herself.

Until there was one that they both wanted equally.

The first time they saw her, she was bound and gagged, trussed up to be a sacrifice to a Demon Lord. Sineya had waited for days in silent stillness for a horde to retrieve the female. Even weakened from exposure to the elements and lack of nourishment, the woman had fought every moment until the demons grew tired of it and knocked her out.

The first time they locked eyes with the woman, both Sineya and Daxas laid claim to her, knowing that they wouldn't be abandoning her to whatever fate befell her after they dealt with the Demon Lord. Things worked out just fine in that regard, since the woman had no inclination to return to the people that had given her up for sacrifice anyway.

The Powers did not take any heed to the obvious attachment Sineya had made with the human. It was not hindering her calling, and therefore was of no importance to them. Their relationship slowly evolved from savage rescuer and grateful, but reluctant servant, to companionship, and finally to lovers. The Powers continued to let them be, until the woman, the human, astonishingly conceived, and the new life suddenly blazed over their awareness like a raging inferno. It was not long before their counterparts demanded a meeting. It became quickly apparent that the new life had set off their alarms as well.

Finally taking a closer look at the situation, and at their creation, they discovered that a side effect of using the essence of one of the Gar'Nahor-Koros was that, although they had removed the ability to draw out the essence of others, the entity could still absorb the essence of others that was released upon death. The entity was abnormally powerful. Much more powerful that any of them had ever intended. That power, coupled with what little power Daxas still retained, had somehow allowed Sineya to impregnate her lover. Barely formed, the entity within the unborn was already more powerful than when it was first created, but it was also coupled with a capacity of darkness that would rival even Daxas at his worst.

"The offspring will need to be watched." The Powers realized among themselves.

"The offspring should be ours!" The Partners decreed. They did not know how or what had created this being, but they wanted it for themselves. Her potential for their 'cause' would be without bounds if nurtured properly. "The essence is nearly as dark as our most powerful."

The Powers looked to one another, realizing that with the human soul and the Slayer entity, their counterparts could not recognize one that was truly their own. "The path has not been set. As a human, even with the inherent Darkness in its essence, there is the possibility that it will walk a path of Light. We can only wait and see."

As much as they disliked it, the Partners knew that they spoke the truth. It was the same for all beings born, even those born of the purest Light or the purest Darkness. However, just because they could not claim this essence immediately, did not mean that they could not 'direct' her into their clutches. Discretely, of course.

The child born turned out to be unclaimable to either side, something that had never happened before. It had the Slayer entity, and only part of Daxas that was necessary, since the bulk of Daxas' essence was sentient and had chosen to remain with Sineya. The child had the natural instincts of a Champion, but no moral compass to be guided by, and tended to kill humans that she considered evil as well as demons. As the Powers and the Partners watched, they came to a mutual conclusion that such a being could not be allowed to come into existence again.

They took all three into the neutral realm where they met. All they told their counterparts was that human mages had used their magics to create their own supernatural defender.

Not wishing to punish innocent beings for their miscalculation, the Powers denied the Partners choice of eliminating them all. Instead, they proposed another solution. Make it so that the Slayer entity passed through Death instead of through Life. They began the Slayer Line through Sineya rather than her offspring, since Sineya was claimed and the child is not. Furthermore, upon Sineya's death, Daxas would be further bound into the Slayer entity, so that he would be unable to influence another soul. This part, the Powers did alone, still not wishing their counterparts to discover the full extent of what they had done. And, although they could not stop the entity from absorbing essences of those that she destroyed, they could use the human soul as a filter so that only a fraction of the essence actually made it through. Meaning, that the power would grow slowly and over time instead of with each kill.

The Partners, however, were discussing between them concerns of their own. This was a type of opponent that their forces had never encountered before. They could not deny their counterparts their warriors, but they needed some way to neutralize this particular one as much as possible. In their opinion, there could never again be a Champion this powerful that was not under their control.

"What can we do?" The Hart his compatriots.

"We need to put in place something or someone to control this being," the Wolf responded, "but we must be subtle about this."

"What about those that they were created to protect." The Ram suggested slyly. "They are corruptible in their own right. A little nudge here and there from us, and the humans will keep this Champion at a relatively low power level, and all under the guise of 'guidance'."

The Wolf looked impressed. "We will do that but, as I said, we will have to be subtle."


	5. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"What does that mean?" Dawn asked fearfully. "What's going to happen to Buffy?"

"She's been taken to a neutral realm, where the Powers and their counterparts are going to help do something with... whatever the kid's become, or is becoming."

"And...and then?" Dawn's voice trembled.

"Then we're going to have to move her." He told her, a little regretfully. The construct that was the Key to Dimensions was the only other one of the group that they'd watched over. Although she had been made to be a temporary construct only, the Slayer's sacrifice had given her a chance to live a full, human life, and the Powers were loathe to take that away from her, since so much had already been taken. In less than a month, the girl had lost all the family that she'd had. The Powers had already arranged for a relative, one that could protect the Key should the need ever arise again, to discover Joyce's death. The girl would probably be receiving the call any day now. "The Balance has been made dangerously unstable by her resurrection, and to leave her here would open the way from someone really, really bad to gain a foothold."

"Can I go with her?" Dawn immediately asked, jumping to her feet, ready to dash up the stairs to pack a bag or something.

"Sorry, kiddo." Whistler shook his head. "Although you are now a living, breathing person, and made of Buffy's blood, your physical body was created from the fabric of this dimension. If we moved you, you'd revert back to pure energy. We're getting you off the Hellmouth, though. The Slayer gave her life so that you could live yours. Now, it's time for you to go live it. Never forget what she said to you."

Dawn fell back into the couch next to Willow, tears streaming down her cheeks in mini rivers, but so choked up that she couldn't get out a sound. For the first time in his eternal servitude, Whistler wished he wasn't the Messenger. These were all good kids, trying to do their best in this fight that they've stumbled into, instead of turning their backs and hiding their heads in the sand like so many in this world, and they just kept getting hit with hammer blow after hammer blow.

Tara abandoned her position on Willow's side to move to Dawn's, putting her arms around the distraught teenager. Willow did the same, even though she was still crying herself. She was tempted, so tempted, to make the same request Dawn had, but she knew that she couldn't. First off, she very much doubted that Buffy would be able to forgive her in her right mind, much less in whatever mind she was in now. Secondly, she could never leave Tara, or Xander, or Dawn. _'That's it,'_ she thought to herself, _'I'll take care of Dawn. I'll make sure that nothing ever, ever happens to her. That's what Buffy would have wanted.'_ She looked over Dawn's head at Tara, who was murmuring comforting words of comfort to their charge. _'Maybe it's time we got off the Hellmouth too.'_

Xander stared at the cluster of girls on the couch across from him. The emotions shifting rapidly across the redhead's face was so clear to him that he could practically read Willow's mind. She was planning on leaving. Leaving the Hellmouth, and leaving him. He didn't know what he was going to do when that happened, but he knew that he wouldn't try to stop her. Every time he'd tried to order the world to his satisfaction, things got screwed up. He lied to Buffy, giving her the motivation to finally kill Angelus, but then she ran away. He had sex with a Slayer, unfortunately not Buffy, and she'd nearly choked him to death. He'd screwed up in some major way with every woman in his life, because he wanted to make his cake the way he wanted it, and eat it too. He glanced over at Anya. Despite her crude, and often times brutal, bluntness, he loved her, like he'd never loved any of the others. He knew that she loved him too. Maybe it was time for him to start ordering his own life, instead of trying to order the world around him.

Anya remained silent. Even though she was no longer a demon herself, she knew enough to recognize which demons should be avoided at all possible costs, and whatever Buffy Summers was becoming definitely fell into that category. She was getting tired of all of these stressful situations. They were making her old before her time. She wondered if they could talk Xander off the Hellmouth. She knew enough about her boyfriend to know that his decision would depend on Willow, since he would never leave her here, in constant danger, where he couldn't at least try to protect her.

~~~ BtVS ~~ X-Men ~~~

"The girl is stirring." The Hart unexpectedly announced.

"What?" The Wolf whirled around in shock. "That is not possible. We have placed her into stasis. With all of our combined power, even she should not be able to breach it."

"That may be so," the Hart looked at him blandly, "but nevertheless, the girl _is_ stirring. She is not awake as of yet, but she is aware."

"We should have anticipated this." The Eagle mused. "This one has never reacted as she should. We have no true idea how the absorbed dark magic and energy from the Hellmouth and various essences has empowered the Slayer or the essence. We must make a decision on how this is to handled and carry it out before she fully awakens."

"Separation is no longer an option." The Lion stated. "Yet, we cannot leave them as they currently are. Sooner or later, the demon essence will succeed in it's bid for control, and then there may be no way to stop it again. Our Champions barely managed to defeat it the first time."

"You should not have taken our warrior in the first place!" The Ram snarled.

"And you have not taken warriors that belonged to us and used them for your purposes?" The Bear threw back at him. "You have even gone so far as to steal away our Champions when you could get away with it, even though that is against The Rules. Do not attempt to cry foul now."

It was true. Over the ages, both sides had broken that particular decree. Unsurprising, since neither side had ever intended to abide by it when it was established. There were Unbreakable Rules laid down, but that definitely wasn't one of them.

"This is all irrelevant." The Wolf growled. "The demon cannot be allowed control, especially of this particular host that has already proven herself against us. Their combined abilities and memories would prove catastrophic to both sides."

"Agreed." The Lion said. "The Gar'Nahor-Koros were becoming too powerful in their own rights, which is why we agreed to allow the humans the knowledge to defeat and banish them. If this essence manages to gain control of the Slayer entity and the Host, there is no telling what it would do with all of the combined knowledge, abilities and especially the ingenuity of this particular Host."

"If separation is not possible, what options do we have?" The Hart asked.

"Merge them into one being." The Bear offered. "But do so in a way that leaves our Champion in the forefront." He quickly continued when it looked as though the Ram would argue that particular choice. "Not the Slayer entity, but the Host. She cannot remain in any dimension where the Great Balance will be affected, and there is no purpose, even for you, to leaving the demon to create a havoc that you cannot take advantage of."

The Partners looked at one another. There was perhaps merit to what their counterparts were suggesting. Outside of their purview, they did not care which presence4 'ruled' the body.

"Very well," the Wolf said, "we are in agreement."

"How shall we go about this?" The Hart asked.

The answer that he got was one that none of them expected.

"Well, you could start," a soft, yet frigidly cold voice spoke from the girl that had fully awakened without them being aware of it, "by asking me what I want to do."


	6. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

It had taken the combined efforts of the Powers appealing to the Champion that she had been, even going so far as to tell her that if the demon took over, then the one she'd given her life for would suffer as well, to the Partners fast-talking to convince Buffy to go along with their hastily concocted plan.

With Buffy's cooperation came the Slayer entity's, and that had been the essential factor in the merge. With the resistance it had already been displaying, and the fact Buffy had managed to wake up when she should not have been able to, both sides suspected that even their combined power would not be able to contain them, including the demon essence, should they have resisted during the procedure.

Once the cooperation of Buffy and the Slayer entity was assured, the Powers and their Counterparts used their power to call forth the demon essence still struggling within its bonds, but it was Buffy's will and the Slayer entity's refusal to submit that kept the essence distracted enough to give the Powers and Partners the opportunity to do what they were planning to do.

It knocked the newly remade Buffy completely out of it, and the next thing she knew, she was staring at the ceiling of a comfortable looking hotel room, occupied by herself and a familiar, yet still badly dressed balance demon.

"Whistler." She acknowledged, her voice flat and devoid of any nuance of emotion.

It unnerved the usually unflappable balance demon. He was used to her threatening painful dismemberment as soon as she sensed his presence, and oddly found himself wishing for her to do it now. "Slayer."

There was a brief flicker of... something in her eyes at the title, but it was gone before he could see what it was.

"The Powers and the Partners have done as much as they could." Whistler finally began. "This dimension has no ties to our type supernatural, but it does have its own, so we have no way of knowing how you will adapt and evolve here. The humans here are at the beginnings of an evolutionary jump, so you're 'uniqueness' won't destabilize the Universal Laws of this dimension."

The young woman in front of him didn't respond. She just listened and watched him with unnerving intensity.

Forcing his growing unease down, he continued, "I'll still be keeping an eye on little sis, and I suspect that this was just the thing to give the others the wake-up call the needed to get out of all this..."

He was about to continue, but the look that flashed across her face was of such pain and rage that he realized that, even though the human part of her still loved them, she really didn't care what happened to them now.

"Dawn is _mine_." Buffy finally spoke. There was an imperious demand in her voice that surprised him as much as the blatant claim. "Bring her to me."

"Believe me, she wanted to come," Whistler responded after a moment, "but like I told her, she was created from the fabric of _that_ dimension, and would revert back to a state of energy if she was moved."

Buffy rose to her feet, oblivious to her nakedness, in the graceful, fluid motion of all predators. Whistler found himself mesmerized. She had been approaching that level as a Slayer, but hadn't yet quite reached. "Then construct her a body of this dimension, and bring her to me."

"Can't do that, kid." Whistler said, swallowing down an undignified squeak of fear as she approached him slowly. "It would screw up the personality of the avatar. Believe me, she's better off staying there."

Buffy stared at him for a moment, weighing the truth in his words. He was about to start fidgeting when she finally blinked and nodded. "Watch over her, Whistler. I can still feel her, even now, and if something happens to her, your ribcage will be the least of your worries."

He explained a little more to her, including the fact that once he left, there would be no more visits since the dimension had a very limited tolerance for the mystical forces not natural to the dimension, and her very presence was already stretching that capacity.

They had left her with an ID, a hefty amount of money, in cash, for some reason, and a motorcycle license instead of one for a four-wheeled automobile, under the new name that she had requested: Trinity Cacciatrice.

Once she felt sufficiently recovered, she ventured out to take in this new dimension that she had been exiled to. The first thing that really caught her attention was a news cast about people referred to as Mutants. People with extraordinary abilities or 'unique' physical features that was caused by something that geneticists called the 'X' gene. Supposedly, they were the next step in human evolution. Although, why the 'next step in human evolution' would cause a perfectly normal human to look like a demon was beyond her, but at least she knew now why the Powers felt that it was okay to drop her here.

Besides, this world had its own brand of supernatural. She could feel herself tuning into and adjusting to it.

Since she was currently flush in the money department, she decided to travel for a while before making any decisions. She was checking out and returning her room key when the concierge informed her that something had been left for her in the hotel safe. Vaguely curious, she had them retrieve it. There were papers which named her the sole heiress to very, very substantial family fortune, after the deaths of her entire family, only recently released to her in full. The last things she found was, to her faint surprise, a Visa card and an American Express card, and they were both BLACK.

There was a note between the credit cards.

_'We are aware that our opposites have little belief in material comfort. We, however, are not so small-minded. Please enjoy.'_ -The Senior Partners, Wolfram & Hart

Buffy's lip curled in a barely there smirk of amusement as she wondered if the PTB knew, or how they would react if they found out, that their enemies had just set her up for life. Also included was a contract for a lawyer. According to the note attached, Lindsay McDonald's objectivity had been unacceptably compromised by falling in love with a woman that they had been using as bait for a target. He was completely human, but his soul, and therefore his life, was bound to the contract. It could only be destroyed, which was the only way he could be permanently killed, by the owner of the contract.

The first thing she decided that she needed, was transportation. Making an inquiry at the front desk, she had them call her a cab to take her to the nearest motorcycle dealership. She had gotten her love of motorcycles from Pike, and had never forgotten the Harleys that he'd always coveted and shown her every chance he got. While his passion had been Harleys, the Slayer relished in the speed of the 'crotch rockets'. He had taught her how to ride before she'd forced herself to return home, only to face the consequences of saving her school mates.

She shook those thoughts away. That life was gone, and there was no point on dwelling on such things. She used the cash that the Powers had left her to pay for the bike out right, settling on a Ducati 90 SS with all the available amenities. With a few thousand left after the purchase, she walked to a nearby mall while they detailed the bike. She needed travel clothes and amenities. For some reason, she still felt cooped up. She wanted to get out and see what was out there, in a way that she'd never allowed herself to think about when she was shackled to the Hellmouth because of her 'duty'.

She was in the mall when she felt it. The tingling of her senses that usually meant that there was a demon close by. With more focus and control than she'd ever had as merely Buffy, Trinity quickly located the person that had set off her 'spidey senses'. She was quite ordinary looking, and didn't look like she was any danger whatsoever. There were others, some abrading her senses more than others. Remembering what she'd seen on the news, she figured that the stronger sensations were from those who's 'mutant' power had already emerged.

She forced herself to move off to the side and out of view, leaning against the wall as she struggled to regain control of base instincts abruptly clamoring inside of her. Suddenly, she was beginning to understand just what drove the demons of her old world; at least, when it came to corrupting innocence. There were some people here that just gave off such purity of essence that she wanted to devour it, make it hers, shape it to her will. There was such _potential _in the untarnished. Whether it was untouched power or simply an untainted outlook of the world around them. She could easily pick them out in even a crowd as big as this one.

Fortunately for them, she might not have much in the way of morals or overly abundant in ethics anymore, but part of the Champion that she had been still remained. She forced down those instincts as best she could, and forced herself back out of the mall. She'd order whatever she needed from off the internet.


	7. Chapter 5 Warning: Mentions of rape

**A/N:** From here on out, please don't bother me with how out-of-character Trinity (formally known as Buffy) is supposedly acting. I know how she's acting. I wrote her that way.

Chapter Five

Trinity lounged in her seat in the upper VIP level of the nightclub, her eyes drifting idly over the grinding bodies on the dance floor below.

She was in the mood for a challenge tonight. Maybe even a virgin, if she could find herself one.

Five years ago today, she had been changed and exiled to this dimension. Not that she was complaining, or anything.

Although the merging of her Human soul, the Slayer entity and the reawakened demon essence had been successful, as far as they could tell (seeing as how it had never before been considered, much less attempted), neither the Powers nor the Partners knew what possible side effects she was in store for.

Shortly after her arrival, however, one had become glaringly obvious. Late one night, while traveling down a back road, a group of bikers had surrounded her with the intentions of taking her bike, her possessions and 'having some fun'. With a smile that would have sent the underworld residents of Sunnydale running in terror, Trinity proceeded to beat them all up and down the road, leaving three of them dead, one probably permanently paralyzed, if he lived, for shooting her in the back, and the two who had wanted to 'have some fun', had been quite effectively, if messily, castrated.

Her reaction to being threatened, regardless of how ineffective she knew the threats were, had been made without thought. Ruthless, relentless and without a twinge of guilt or remorse.

Even more telling was how much she had enjoyed destroying the scum that had tried to challenge her. She had relished in the scent of blood in her nostrils and the feel of it on her skin with an enjoyment that would have horrified her old self. In this new personality of hers, however, it had released a tension that she hadn't even realized had been building. The need to hunt that she had gotten from the Slayer and the need to destroy that she had 'inherited' from the demon essence.

In the time that she'd been here, she'd slowly adjusted to living again. She had found it much easier than she'd expected with her sudden lack of inhibitions and morals, although the sights and scents and sounds of the world around her still sometimes pressed in on her like shards of jagged glass. Now, though, she slept with whoever she wanted, bought and did whatever she wanted and the occasional hunt and kill helped too.

That had been the hardest part of her new personality to adjust to, the need to hunt and to kill. She had retained enough of what had made her a Champion to need to protect the innocent, but there were no demons here. Luckily, with that lack of morals, human prey became a viable option and, to date, police in several states were still stumped over the brutal and graphic murders of a couple of serial killers and rapist and high profile, always get off on technicalities, murderers. All found with irrefutable evidence of their crimes, usually by her leaving her victims in their own 'trophy rooms'.

Her victims may have died graphically and brutally, but that didn't mean that they should be sympathized over.

Those who targeted children had simply never been found. Even the darkest part of her psyche rejected the violation of one's own young, and hurting children in general had always been a particular trigger for her.

Besides, she found this new violence fed something fundamental inside of her, which she apparently needed to keep that darkest part of herself in check. She discovered that the longer she held off indulging that part of her, the more the darkness grew, making her already homicidal tendencies much more volatile and sadistic, and a lot less discerning.

Mentally dismissing her ruminations, Trinity's eyes were drawn to a lithe body grinding back against her dance partner to the hard beat of the music. At first glance, the girl looked about nineteen or twenty, but looking past the make-up and sexy clothes, Trinity guessed that she was at least a couple of years younger.

Behind her shades, her eyes caressed over sweat glistening skin as she moved, tracing full, generous breasts and flexing, deliciously defined abs. The girl was obviously healthy and in good shape. _Nice_, she thought, unconsciously licking her lips.

"You are beginning to smoke, Mistress." A low voice said from behind her left.

A glance down her hand curled around her empty glass showed that, not only was all her ice melted, but her hand had indeed began to smoke.

"Thanks, Angelo." She said to the young man that had taken it upon himself to be her 'bodyguard'. "We wouldn't want to accidentally burn the place down, now would we? The insurance premium would just skyrocket."

It had been mere coincidence that Trinity had chosen the surname of one of the most prosperous and wealthy families in Italy, one that had died off only recently. The W&H Senior Partners had quickly taken advantage of her random choice, and established her identity as the sole remaining heir.

Lindsay, who she had taken an instant liking to, had found himself a law firm with guidelines almost as questionable as Wolfram & Hart, but not quite. Not surprising, considering just who the backers of his previous employers were, but they were good enough, or bad enough, whichever way you chose to look at it. By bringing such a powerful and wealthy client as Trinity with him, he was immediately hired, and his natural skill in the courtroom had him climbing the ladder of corporate success quickly. Simply put, he could take a serial killer that had been caught red-handed, standing over a bound body, covered in his victim's blood with his hands still on the murder weapon, and convince a jury that it was all a case of either mistaken identity or self defense.

Wolfram & Hart trained their lawyers well.

After Trinity finally took a good look at her 'family's' assets, she discovered that she now owned numerous businesses and real estate all over the world. Most were legitimate, some weren't, and there were ties to several of the more powerful, but less known, Mafia families.

Over the years, she had made use of new contacts in both worlds, and in the process, had made quite a life for herself. A request from one of those contacts, also led to the discovery of some nifty new abilities and the beginning of a lucrative hobby.

The Hellfire was a reddish-black flame that engulfed her body when she was truly enraged. The first time she had called it, quite unintentionally, was in New York. At the request of someone that had been instrumental in several of her 'hunts', she had gone to the Big Apple to search for his daughter, who had gone suddenly missing. The young woman had won an all-expense paid trip to a sporting event. She had made it to the event, but disappeared soon after.

_- Flashback -_

Starting at the daughter's last confirmed location, the hotel room, Trinity drew in the essence of her quarry and began her search. She tracked the girl to an inconspicuous, yet heavily guarded condominium apartment building upstate. The part of Trinity that relished pain, terror and suffering, was quickly subsumed by an overwhelming rage as she realize that her friend's child had been enslaved into a whore house that specialized in non-consensual encounters for the wealthy willing to pay a fortune to rape. The Champion in her experienced bitter revulsion. Trinity felt something slip into place. She realized then, she had limits in what she would let be. Some evils were utterly intolerable and could not be in the same space as herself. Molding an innocent had its time and joys, but she would not allow this wholesale violation of the blameless. The building reeked with a powerful call and need for intervention and vengeance. The flavor was deeply ingrained into its surface by the suffering of long lost inhabitants and the newer victims of these modern barbarians. She was compelled to act.

Her sharp senses picked up every scream, cry, whimper and thud of flesh on flesh, even muffled through the soundproof walls. Every breath she took brought the scent of cum, sweat, blood and terror. A red haze fogged her vision as rage built with each step she took. Unbeknownst to her, her eyes turned from her natural hazel, to a pale gold, and finally to a deep crimson blood-red. The first man to attack her found himself shoved face first into a wall, until it cracked and compressed around his skull. He was left in that hole, dangling off his feet, as Trinity moved to the next man.

A backhand sent the second guy flying across the room before she stumbled backwards from a bullet that struck her in the shoulder. Her shoulder and arm twitched as the wound healed almost immediately. Then, the men stared on in horror her body transformed before their eyes. A liquid-like covering quickly grew, seemingly from inside the wound, to cover her from neck to feet, and her fingers turned into wicked looking talons.

Shaking off their shock, and desperately swallowing their fear, her adversaries began firing at her again; only to find, to their horror, that the weird growth was some kind of body armor that even their armor piercing 'cop killer' bullets couldn't seem to penetrate.

She swept through the men like the proverbial Angel of Death, and continued her way up the stairs. With each step, the scents and sounds became more intense, and her rage grew, until she felt like it was burning through her like a wild fire. She didn't even notice when a new scent filtered into her senses. The scents of burning flesh and wood and stone. New men coming to defend their 'business' took one look at her and ran in the other direction. Those patrons curious enough to stop what they were doing to find the source of the unusual distractions, which were finally filtering through the top-of-the-line soundproofed walls, quickly scrambled back into their rooms in terror, hoping the devastation would pass them by. Although there was the occasional person who simply watched, assured that their position in life would protect them from anything.

She laughed in pleasure as the pain and terror and death being dealt by her hands began to feed that part of her that needed such things. She gave free reign to that dark part of her, retaining just enough control not to forget why she was there and that there were innocents to be spared. It was something that she had refrained from doing until then, and it turned out to be a revelation unto itself, releasing abilities that she had been unaware that she'd 'inherited' along with her dark needs, and the last barrier between the true and complete merger of the Demon and the Champion within her.

The red-black flames started at her hands. It quickly spread to engulf her entire body before spilling out onto the floor and began greedily consuming anything in it's path. She grabbed one of her attackers by the throat, and he screamed in agony as her flames forced its way into him through his mouth, nose and eyes. She set him on his feet and continued on, while his body spasmed in place for a moment. Then bolts of flame sparked from him, fired in deliberate motions, arcing around to set blaze to his nearer associates.

She created more just like the fiery was-human, as she moved and set them to do her will. The bullets that struck these creatures spilled not blood, but flares of red-black flames. Once all of the 'guards' were dead, dying or under her control, she began issuing orders to her 'minions'.

_Bring the innocents to me. Find me this girl._

Trinity envisioned the young woman that she was searching for. There was no verbal response, just as she had offered no verbal order, but her commands were carried out by both transformed minions and elemental fire. Aware now that this blaze bowed to her, she directed the flames to block any avenue of escape, parting only for her minions carrying theirs burdens. Trinity arranged a safe zone in the lobby.

Trinity sensed immediately when the girl was found. She was in one of the back rooms. The Champion could not wait on the minions. She moved, as fast as flame, until she was there. At the sight of the young woman, Trinity was unable to withhold punishment. In a renewed flare of fury, she set the room aflame, including the man cowering in the corner, and spared only the girl.

At eighteen, the girl had been very beautiful. More importantly, she had been a virgin. Patrons had been on her in a steady, continuous stream since her arrival. She was bruised from face to thighs and bleeding from every orifice. Contusions, bloody wounds and deep scratches made it evident that she had fought back, until the fight had been raped out of her. Now the girl was close to catatonic. Without pausing to even wonder how she was doing it, Trinity pushed back the flames engulfing her own body to lift the girl into her arms, at first ignoring the pained and frightened whimpering. When she did perceive the girl's reaction, the Champion-Demon's rage escalated to new heights. The flames renewed, flickering its protective aura in a tight embrace of them both. Trinity inhaled deeply, drawing the knowledge of the girl's violators deep into her being. She would hunt them down and make them pay for what they had done to this innocent.

_- End Flashback -_

Trinity smiled in remembrance. Opening a pathway, she let the flames guide the traumatized women to that safe space she had made. She followed them, carrying the girl, until she was nearly out of the building. She then set her minions on the 'patrons.' Basking in the torment, she loosed terrible immolation upon the perpetrators. Holding the girl to her, she allowed her Hellfire free, glorious reign. She burned everything above the lobby, leaving just enough for positive identifications of each patron in the room they had been in. Picking up the duffel bag of security footage that she'd had one of the now disposed of fire-minions place outside, she warned the newly freed women to remain in the area she had created for them and disappeared into the darkness with the girl in her arms, just as sirens from fire trucks and police rang though the night.

Whenever the news released the identity of one of the remains left behind and the outcries began, demanding justice, Trinity released the footage of the identified, revealing that 'justice' had already been served.

It had taken some time, but Trinity eventually learned to control both the body armor and her Hellfire. Generating the 'fire had been simple, since the 'fire was fueled by her rage, and she had more than enough of that to spare, but now she could call and control the Hellfire at will, no matter her state of mind. She could control the temperature of the 'fire, to just warm enough to be felt to hot enough to melt steel or turn sand to glass. She could even make temporary constructs, capable of seeing, hearing and even tactile sensation.

Since then, she'd made quite a little career for herself on similar 'rescue' missions. Those little ventures to further fed that part of her that needed to hunt and kill. Even though she really didn't need the money, she charged exorbitant fees for her 'retrievals.' Each adventure usually consisted of world travel and infiltrating militia groups, cults and other mysterious havens. The only exception she made towards price, was for kidnapped or murdered children.

That was how she'd ended up with Angelo and his kin. She'd been in Italy to check on the 'family estate', when she had been contacted by one of the Families with whom she remained in contact. His eleven year old Goddaughter had been raped and left for dead. Having been instrumental in more than a few of her 'jobs', she was asked to find the monster that had done the deed and deliver him, alive. Luckily for her, there had been more to it than that. It turned out, that the depredation had been done at the order of a rival Family, and while Trinity had delivered the man who issued the command, she had the pleasure of dealing with the actual rapist herself.

She had left the man alive as part of his punishment. Killing him would have been too quick. She wanted him to suffer for the rest of his life like the little girl would. So, she'd used her Hellfire to 'remove' that part that had caused so much pain. She'd burned his cock and testicles down to his body, taking her time so that he remained conscious for the entire agonizing process. She made sure that the area was cauterized so that he'd would definitely live, even if he didn't wish to, and ensured that he was delivered to a surgeon capable of making sure that he could see to certain needs and keep his mouth shut afterwards. A family man himself, which to Trinity's mind only made his crime worse, she swore to him that if he committed suicide, she'd do the same thing to his son as soon as he was old enough for it to matter.

The memory still made her grin as she wondered what he told his wife.

When the DiBiasi family was told what she'd done for their youngest child, they pledged the whole family to her service. They had not been wealthy people, and that had been the only thing they felt they could offer for the magnitude of what Trinity had done, even though she told them that it really had been her pleasure. In the end, she accepted since they wouldn't give up. She got the girls into good schools and made sure that the youngest got the therapy that she needed. Then she smoothed the way so the parents could take care of their wounded daughter, even going so far as to move them to the town where their daughters' school was located. Their son, Angelo, decided that he would be her bodyguard, even after discovering just how much she really didn't need one.

Tamping down her inner fire, Trinity turned her attention back to the pretty young thing that had initially captured her attention. She was moving off the dance floor towards the rest room, and her previous dance partner was following, not far behind.

Trinity stood to follow. People moved out of her way with an instinctive avoidance that the majority of them weren't even aware of. If he was after her chosen prey, well, that just wouldn't do. That young woman was going to be wrapped around _her _body tonight, not his.


	8. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

When Trinity reached the restroom area, she found something that made her smile in a cruel sort of delight. The man she had come to 'dissuade' had her prey trapped against the wall in the darkness, past the bathroom doors. One hand was over the girl's mouth while the other was forcing her struggling legs apart. As she approached them on silent feet, she pulled a stiletto from it's hidden sheath in her belt.

"Come on, baby, calm down. You know you want this, or you wouldn't have been teasing me like that on the floor."

He froze when the tip of a blade pressed against the base of his spine, and a dark, sultry voice spoke in his ear.

"I'm sure she does want it." Trinity said. Her voice and the whisper of her breath against his neck made him shudder. "She wants it about as much as you want me to remove your spinal cord and hang you with it."

He merely laughed in amusement, his body already shifting to diamond-hardness in response to the threat. "You're going to need more than that little toothpick, babe. Now, run along, and when I'm finished here, I'll come find you."

Trinity smirked at his arrogance. She had already sensed the shift in his body and felt that there was no longer any give in the flesh her blade was pressed against. Imbuing her weapon with a bit of her Hellfire, she pressed again. She inhaled deeply, taking in the sent of his sudden surge of fear when his diamond-hard flesh was penetrated and blood began to trickle down his lower back. She sent another tendril of Hellfire down the blade, and it entered his body through the cut.

His lust died as fear flooded his brain and killed all traces of arousal, but then his self confidence kicked back in.

"Do you know who my father is?" He said arrogantly, phasing his body into intangibility to remove the blade. "Anything happens to me and you won't live past the next hour, and this hole in the wall will be nothing but ashes."

He gasped in pain as it felt like fire was suddenly worming along his veins. The pain was so intense that his body reverted back to normal as he lost concentration and collapsed to his knees.

"Does that feel like I care who your father is?" Trinity growled. "Run along, little puppy, before I spank you on the nose," her voice lowered menacingly, "with your spleen. And if I see you in my club again, I'll set you ablaze from the inside and send your shell back to dear daddy gift-wrapped with a bow and a _Child Rearing For Dummies_ book, because he obviously forgot to teach you some manners. Whoever he is."

The young man may have been spoiled out of all good sense of right and wrong, but he was obviously not stupid. She could practically read his mind as he realized that it would be better for him to let it go now, and return later with the wrath of his seemingly powerful father at his back. He lifted his hands to show his cooperation, however unwilling, and backed away slowly, his hard gaze never leaving the surprisingly familiar face of the little blonde that had been behind him. "You're going to regret this." He assured her as he disappeared into the crowd.

With that, she dismissed him from her consideration and turned her attention to the pretty thing that she had rescued. Over the years, as she came into her new personality and her new powers, she realized a simple truth. She could protect the innocents from anyone and anything, but not from herself. She quickly found that she had little use for people outside of those she claimed, other than sex and amusement, but once an outsider captured her attention, she indulged her desires fully and without consideration, whether for their company, their pleasure or their pain. She talked, she seduced, she tortured (in both the good way and the bad) and she killed. Life was good.

At first she wondered if that was something that she should be worried about, but quickly figured that if she had to ask herself that, she obviously wasn't worried about it. Therefore, she merely acknowledged this new facet of herself and made sure that she did not corrupt those within her circle of protection unintentionally, especially the still impressionable young children of the family who had pledged themselves to her service.

Hiding her own intentions behind a mask of concern, most of it unfelt, she asked, "Are you okay?"

~~~ BtVS ~~ X-Men ~~~

Shinobi Shaw seethed all the way back to the Manor, breaking nearly every speeding law in the books and nearly causing several car crashes without care. That bitch was going to pay for what she'd done to him, but first he needed to find out _what_ she'd done to him. Somehow, she'd managed to hurt him in _both_ forms; something that no one had ever done before.

Storming through the main hall of the Hellfire Club to the medical room, he whipped off his shirt and snapped at one of the attendants. "That bitch did something to me. Find it and fix it." Being the son of the Black King had its benefits. The attendant began working without comment.

When the bed was pulled out of the body scanner, his father was waiting.

"What happened?" Sebastian Shaw, Black King of the Hellfire Club's elite Inner Circle, demanded of his son.

"I was after this little cocktease when this bitch puts a knife in my back and threatens to hang me with my own spinal cord if I didn't let the whore go."

"Why didn't you shift?"

"I did shift, Father." Shinobi rolled his eyes. "She did something to the blade to make it penetrate. Fucking thing felt like it was on fire. Then I went intangible to get the knife out of my back, and it felt like my insides were burning."

Before Sebastian could respond, the medical attendant cleared his throat respectfully to gain their attention. "Speak," commanded the Black King.

"We can not tell what was done to him, Lord Shaw, but the scans indicate that his nerves were exposed to some type of heat source."

"Who has done this?" Shaw demanded.

"That Italian bitch that Frosty's always drooling over." Shinobi told him, as he suddenly realized where he had seen that woman before. "She didn't even recognize me."

Sebastian knew immediately who his son referred to. There was only one Italian woman that their White Queen favored these days. Trinity Cacciatrice, the young money tree with connections to most of those who held the reigns of the Italian underworld. Emma liked her because she could not read her. The young woman was psychically invisible, according to the White Queen, and it was a refreshing challenge to not be able to anticipate the other's actions. According to Gabrielle, his personal assistant, Ms. Cacciatrice did not possess the x-gene, and so he had her watched, but dismissed her for his long term plans.

Apparently, that may have been premature.

"Call in the Healer." Shaw ordered the attendant as he turned to leave.

"Father," Shinobi called out, "what about this insult? It _must_ be answered."

"This is a situation of your making, Shinobi." Shaw told him. "You wished for your entrance into the Inner Circle to be taken into consideration, but first you must prove that you are capable of taking care of your own problems. I suggest you handle it yourself."

Shinobi snarled at the retreating back of his father. The old man wanted him to prove himself, well fine then. He'd prove himself, get into the Inner Circle, and then he would thoroughly enjoy the look on his old man's face when he took his place as the Black King.

Shaw entered his office and turned to his assistant. "Do a more in-depth background on Trinity Cacciatrice. It seems that there is more to her than we expected."

"My Lord?" The young woman questioned even as she began to follow the order.

"It seems that the young lady has hidden depths. You are sure that she is not a mutant, but she has some power. She has managed to harm Shinobi, despite his abilities."

"There is nothing in her DNA that would indicate an embodied source of power. Did he say how she accomplished this?"

"He doesn't know." Shaw told her. "All he knows is that she was able to do something to a blade that allowed it to penetrate his diamond-hard form, and whatever it was also managed to affect him even when he turned intangible. He said that it felt as if he was on fire from the inside. The medical attendant says that his nerves look as if they had been exposed to a source of heat."

Shaw's assistant, a young mutant that could sense other mutants and gauge their power levels, had been listening and working at the same time. She was trained to compartmentalize and do multiple things with equal concentration. She sent her searches through every database around the world. There was little that she had not already uncovered. Trinity was the youngest child of a wealthy Italian entrepreneur, who had made his fortune through both legal and illegal means. He had been known to be a man of his word, who, once that word was given, could never be bought or threatened unless betrayed first. As such, he had wielded his own type of power, able to ask for and receive any manner of favor or retribution without getting his own hands dirty. A completely neutral party, he had been, in some ways, more powerful than the actual Families, since no one would touch him or his family without fear of retribution from the others.

Trinity inherited everything when the family had died in a plane crash from Italy to America. They were on their way to join their youngest child, who had gone a week before with her maternal grandmother. The grandmother had been a wealthy New York matron who wielded considerable power in her own right. She had died suddenly of a massive stroke while the two had been at a charity event. In less than a week's time, the young woman had lost all of her family, and become one of the wealthiest people in the world at the same time.

For the most part, she ignored her family's businesses. She had an overall CEO, a woman named Sage, who seemed to be the young woman's closest and most trusted associate, along with her own personal attorney, who handled all of her legal affairs. There were rumors that a few of the original managers of some of the companies had disappeared, presumably after being caught doing something that the two women did not approve of, but nothing had been confirmed.

There was no indication of mutant ability, genetic enhancement, or mystical power in the family. While Gabrielle could tell that there was something dangerous about the young woman, one of her own talents was the ability to sense other mutants, and Trinity Cacciatrice did not ping that sense at all. Therefore, it took her by surprise to find out that she possessed power of any kind. Being psychically invisible to the White Queen's telepathy had not been an indicator. There were a few, very rare, non-mutants that were naturally immune to mental manipulation of any type.

The few times that Gabrielle had come into contact with the young woman, one thing had stood out from all else, however. Trinity Cacciatrice was, by most anyone else's standards, an amoral young woman with no use for anyone that did not pique her interest. In Gabrielle's estimation, the young woman was probably more dangerous than most of the Inner Circle.


	9. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

_{C'mon in, Sage.}_ Trinity sent, sensing her friend and partner on the other side of the door.

Sage was a mutant, a cyberpath, whom she had picked up in the Balkans a few years ago during one of her jobs. The young woman, not that much older than herself, had a type of apathetic personality that had instantly intrigued Trinity.

Sage's mind processed like a supercomputer, lightning fast and automatically compartmentalized. Combined with her telepathy and eidetic memory, she was easily one of the most brilliant people in the world. When Trinity found her, she had been wasting her talents in some hole-in-the-world war-torn country eking out a living as a mercenary and occasional bodyguard.

She, like Trinity, had little use for people other than for the basic necessities. They were either too boring to deal with, or too treacherous to trust.

Unlike Trinity, however, she did not have that need for death and destruction that occasionally motivated Trinity's 'hunts'. What she did have, however, was an objectivity that Trinity was well aware that she now lacked. Sage did not necessarily provide a moral or ethical code, but her presence and help was in recognizing that some of the things that Trinity was capable of, could draw unnecessary and unneeded attention.

After watching the slightly older woman for almost a month before approaching her, Trinity recognized a trait in Sage that she herself had been prone to in her previous life. She was losing herself in her powers. The combination of vast intellect and psychic abilities had the woman feeling mentally isolated and unable to connect with people, and she often came across as a cold and robotic.

After convincing Sage that her talents, all of them, would be better put to use with Trinity, the younger woman made it a goal to draw the human back out of the mutant.

Entering the well furnished VIP room, Sage glanced with vague interest at the half naked young woman asleep on the daybed before turning her attention to Trinity, who was getting dressed.

She took a seat in the plush chair as Trinity pulled supple leather up her hips.

"You've been thinking about the past quite a bit lately." she finally began.

Trinity looked at her with a wry smile. "Picking me up again?" Sage nodded slightly. "Sorry. Still not used to someone else having access to my thoughts."

Through trial and error, they had discovered interesting developments of her evolving abilities, besides her Hellfire. For one, under normal circumstances, she was psychically invisible. The particular ability was not like other mutants, and the rare non-mutant, that appeared as a blank spot to the mental senses. It was as if she simply was not there. Telepathy, empathy, it didn't matter. If it was mental power, it did not touch her. She did not even register to the seers.

It had been Sage that had informed her of that particular ability. Her inability to sense the younger woman, either telepathically or even empathically, had disconcerted the cyberpath at first, but she quickly became accustomed it. It had also intrigued her enough to truly consider the younger woman's proposal. After all, like the White Queen, it was a relief sometimes to be around someone that she could not read.

Sage's abduction had led to the most fundamental change in their relationship. When she disappeared following a 'seek and destroy' job, Trinity had nearly a decimated a small city looking for her. Sage's identity had been betrayed by their 'employers' after the job had been done, apparently in an attempt to recoup their money, and she had been taken down by a corrupt military unit and taken to an isolated location before she'd made it out of the country. Enraged by the betrayal, Trinity had gone to the last location that she had for her friend, not even beginning what was sure to have been a fruitless search, and simply made her presence, and her demands, vividly known.

She had made it clear with the first victim, emphasized by what she had done to the man before releasing him to spread the word, that if her associate was dead, no one would survive her wrath. The longer she waited, the angrier she became. The angrier she got, the more vicious her actions became. By the fourth admittedly brutal death, people began to realize that Trinity was not like most people that they were accustomed to dealing with. Until finally, someone had come forth with information that she could actually use.

With a direction, she managed to find her friend a little over a week later. Beaten, bloody, bruised from head to toe, the mere possibility that Sage had been violated, credited to the fact that the cyberpath was naked when Trinity found her, nearly sent the occasionally homicidal, borderline sociopathic former protector on a rampage of death and destruction. As it was, the abandoned military base where Sage was being held was crumbling around them as reddish black flames burned ceaselessly, and men screamed in terror and agony as the flames seemed to chase them down like hunting dogs.

Sage had been brutally beaten. For the first time since her arrival in this dimension, Trinity felt something close to fear bubble in the back of her mind at the thought of losing the closest thing that she had to a best friend in this world. She had taken the unconscious woman's hand in her own and pried open one of her eyes, trying to figure out how to tell how badly she was hurt without the cyberpath's input. Her nostrils twitched at the scent of the mutant's blood and the feel of it coating her skin as she wiped it carefully away from her face. It stirred a rage in her on the behalf of another like she hadn't felt since Angelus had targeted her friends and family to get to her. She was going to find the person that had sold them out and introduce their eyes to their backbone, through their chest cavity.

She had been calling her name softly, trying to rouse the unconscious woman without jostling her, since she didn't know how badly the cyberpath was hurt. She didn't want to take the chance of moving her and possibly making things worse, but she knew that Sage would be able to diagnose her own body, even internal wounds, if she could just wake her up.

Trinity had been on the verge of taking the risk of moving Sage, regardless of the potential consequences, when one of 'Buffy' memories wiggled to the forefront. Buffy had been badly wounded on patrol, and had managed to reach Tara's dorm room, which had been closer than her own, and she suspected that Willow would most likely be there anyway, before she collapsed.

Willow hadn't been there, but Tara had. Since her wounds had been a bit more than what the young Wicca's first aid kit could handle, she shyly offered to share her energy with the wounded Slayer to help heal the worst of the wounds and ease her pain. Buffy had agreed, after affirming that it wouldn't harm her best friend's girlfriend, then was helped onto the bed. Tara explained each step as she did it, because going through the final steps at once, so that she could enter the needed trance-like state. It hadn't taken long, but afterwards, Buffy had felt ten times better, and some sleep had taken care of the rest.

The energy sharing had worked, just like before, but a side effect had left Sage 'marked' as the Old Ones would mark one of their 'warriors'. It was not something that Daxxur had ever done, that Trinity could recall from the absorbed essence's memories. It preferred the death and destruction by it's own hands, but it was not unheard of for the truly powerful demons to 'mark' another, or even the occasional promising human, as a personal warrior or servant or even a concubine. The marking had also created a clear bridge between them that allowed Sage to psychically sense the former Champion, even going so far as to bypass her natural shields.

"Are you all right?" The cyberpath asked, breaking her thoughts.

"Peachy." The younger woman answered. "It's the anniversary of my 'rebirth', when this blending thing happened and I was exiled to this dimension. This is the first time I've been able to think about it without feeling all homicidal. I think that's a step up, don't you?"

"You seem to be quite different from the person in your memories." Sage commented. "I still do not understand how you could have been the way you were from your memories in your previous life, yet be so utterly different now."

Trinity glanced at Sage as she pulled on her boots, shrugging. So far, other than Lindsay, the cyberpath was the only one that knew of her true origins, and what she was. "I've always been capable of this, in a way. It's that darkness in my soul that took those stupid Powers by such surprise. They probably thought a lowly human like myself, wasn't aware of it, but I knew about it. I'd always known. Not the specifics or origins, mind you, but I knew that something was off about me."

"What do you mean?" Sage asked, always interested in learning more about her some-what 'best friend', especially curious about her former life.

"It gets passed down like a genetic anomaly through the females of my mother's line." Trinity told her. "It tended to skip generations, but then a girl would be born with it. My great-aunt had it, and she sensed it in me the first time she held me when I was a baby. Whenever I visited, which now that I think back on it, was an awful lot, she drilled into me the necessity to control and suppress those darker tendencies at all costs, or it would consume me."

Finished dressing, she and Sage silently left the room. Angelo, who had been standing guard on the other side, would remain to make sure that the girl was not bothered.

"Faith thought I was so controlled because of inhibitions and because I was the 'good' Slayer. Little did she know that I could have been so much worse than she could have ever dreamed of being, simply because I really wouldn't have cared. The guilt of not being able to save everyone was real, for the most part, but collateral damage never really bothered me, unless it's someone that I care about. One of the reasons I jumped was because I was losing myself to the darkness. I had been keeping it appeased with beating up on monsters and demons, but it was getting harder and harder. It took all my self control, and a convenient scream from Dawn, to not kill that little bastard Ben. I wanted to use the troll hammer and turn his head to paste for what he and that bitch did to my sister."

She shook her head slightly to bring herself back to the present. "Mixing that impulse with the protective instincts of the Slayer keeps innocents safe for the most part, but the demon part means that when I focus on specific prey, I just can't seem to stop myself. That's mostly what I've got you for."

"Like her?" Sage nodded in the direction of the young woman.

Trinity nodded with a sly grin. "I wanted her. I was going to have her. I would not have forced her against her will, but I have no problem seducing to get what I want. The fact that she was a virgin just happened to be a happy bonus."

"She's a bit young." Sage commented. "The last thing we need is police arresting you for statutory rape."

"Her ID is on file, and it says that she's twenty-two. That's what we have to go by. The fact that she's seventeen isn't my concern. If she didn't want to get fucked stupid, she shouldn't have come up here with me. Better yet, she shoulda just kept that tight ass out of the club all together. It's not like we're at all discreet here." She leered over she shoulder. "I think I'll keep her for a while, though. For a newbie, she's very enthusiastic, and delightfully eager. A few days, and I'll probably have her ready for some double-action."

"Will you be able to control yourself should the Black King demand retribution?" Sage asked, bringing the conversation back to the real issue at hand.

"I'll be reasonable as long as he will." Trinity's brow rose at the abrupt subject change, but she was used to it from her friend. Sage's mind worked on multiple levels, and conversations tended to merge into continuous streams sometimes. Thankfully, she'd had lots of practice from her last genius best friend. "I have no issues with the man, and I didn't even hurt Junior all that bad. The one rule here is clear and to the point, so the little bastard had it coming. You know as well as I do, that if I'd been a little later, and caught him in the actual act, we'd be bleaching and repainting the walls again."

"We need to be cautious when it comes to the Club members." Sage said quietly. She knew well that Trinity spoke the truth, but she still felt the need to caution her sometimes unstable friend. "They have a long reach and many resources."

"That little shit is not to come back into this club, Sage." Trinity growled, her eyes flashing crimson. "I might not care much about what people to do one another since my 'rebirth', but I still draw the line at rape. You are well aware of my feelings about such acts. Hell, you've helped clean up afterwards. I don't care if he is the son of some Kingpin wannabe, I'll eviscerate him if I catch him in the act, _especially_ in this club."


End file.
